The red-headed doctor shrugged. "Look, Senator--sometimes a banana is
a banana. I know heart disease, and I know how it acts. I know that it
kills people if they wait too long. And when you're dead, no
rejuvenation lab is going to bring you back to life again."
"Oh, hell! Who's dying?" Fowler's grey eyebrows knit in the old
familiar scowl, and he bit down hard on the cigar. "Heart disease! So
I get a little pain now and then--sure it won't last forever, and when
it gets bad I'll come in and take the full treatment. But I can't do
it now!" He spread his hands in a violent gesture. "I only came in
here because my daughter dragged me. My heart's doing fine--I've been
working an eighteen hour day for forty years now, and I can do it for
another year or two--"
"But you have pain," said Dr. Moss.
"So? A little twinge, now and then."
"Whenever you lose your temper. Whenever anything upsets you."
"All right--a twinge."
"Which makes you sit down for ten or fifteen minutes. Which doesn't go
away with one nitro-tablet any more, so you have to take two, and
sometimes three--right?"
* * * * *